Jordan O'BrienFollowing its partnership with Ford at CES 2016 and the addition of Alexa support to the BMW Connected App, Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant is getting even more car control thanks to a tie-up with American car brand Genesis.
Genesis is not an exceptionally well-known car manufacturer in Europe, but it’s a brand positioned as the South Korean giant Hyundai’s premium offering to take on the likes of Lexus and Infiniti in the hotly competitive American car market.
Like many cars offered to the American market, cars in Genesis’ line-up offer full Internet connectivity. This enables some pretty clever control via third-party Apps or – as in this case – via Amazon Echo.
Consumers purchasing either a Genesis G80 or G90 will be able to access a number of vehicle functions from the Amazon Echo, Tap, Echo Dot or Amazon Fire TV. That means users can bark commands such as ‘Alexa, open Genesis’ with the car complying to the request.
Genesis says that users will have full control over the central locking system, the horn and lights, remote start and stop, as well as the HVAC system using the Alexa voice assistant. Security protocols will be built-in to the functionality however, meaning thieves aren’t able to break into a user’s house and politely ask Alexa to start the car. The security will come in the form of a pin code; which Alexa will ask the user to say before it’ll perform any functions.
Despite being a premium car, Alexa control won’t be included in the price of the car – sort of. Users will get three years of access to Genesis Connected Services, a subscription required for Alexa control, for free – but after that it’s a yearly fee. That service will also allow users to control their car from their phone.